Social-media marketing growing

Marketers at small businesses will pay more attention to social media as they gain popularity among consumers, a new survey says.

A survey by email-marketing software firm AWeber of over 2,500 small businesses found nearly 70 percent are using some type of social-media tactics and 77 percent indicate integrating email marketing and social media is either “very important” or “moderately important.”

The most important tactics currently involve spreading content onto additional mediums, such as sharing email newsletters on Twitter, and delivering blog posts through email, the survey says.

It says small-business marketers seem to recognize the value in driving social-media followers and fans to their email lists and, conversely, letting subscribers get information from the medium with which they are most comfortable.

Fifty-four percent of respondents indicate they plan to use Facebook as a tool to help build their email lists, and nearly 20 percent indicate that integrating email marketing and social media increased customer loyalty.

Email marketing “continues to be a measureable effective tool that brings significant value to small businesses, regardless of the nature of their business,” Tom Kulzer, CEO and founder of AWeber, says in a statement.

He also says marketers “are continuing to realize the importance of integrating their email marketing campaigns with social media activities as a way to reach a broader audience, but are still learning how to do this effectively.”